Pages

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Canning season has begun! Rasberries and Apples!

We love this time of year!
You may already know that we love to can in our house. And by WE I mean SAM! I love the end result of canning and I think I would love canning if I ever had a chance to actually do it, but just like the garden, this is Sam's domain. He will allow me in the kitchen and occasionally I get to help, but this is his thing and I mostly am in charge of getting the frickety out of his way.

I can deal with that.

Anyhow, my mom brought us 4 boxes of apples from just one of their trees yesterday so we (Sam) decided we (Sam) would can some applesauce today.

After Bountiful Baskets (honestly, why haven't you done BB yet? It is such a wonderful way to eat quality healthy food! X inhaled 3 plums on the drive home from BB today! Because plums are better than the cookie he could have had. I love it.) we came home and prepped (this involved cleaning so I was allowed to help, hee hee) the kitchen.

I wanted the kids to feel involved and our own apple tree is just full of apples so I sent them outside to pick up all the yucky apples on the ground and to pick the ready apples off the tree.

Buddy was telling me something about the huge bucket of apples they were going to pick.

Using the old kitty litter bucket for the bad apples.

Picking apples off the tree and putting them in a basket.

More apple picking.

I love that at two years old, Mr. X is able to take part in working with our family. I think that is so important and he did such a good job picking apples with his brother and sister.

Meanwhile, the scene in the kitchen.

We invested in a victorio last year. Such a good investment! It made the applesauce a breeze!

Sambo doing all the heaving lifting and cutting apparently.

We (Sam) also finished canning raspberry jam, all from our very own raspberry patch.
We had some leftover raspberries, so Sam made raspberry lemonade from scratch.
So good. We need to can that too! I am going to beg Sammy to do just that!

This was our end result.
8 pint jars of raspberry jam plus 2 in the fridge (we gave 2 jars away so only 6 are pictured.

10 quart jars of applesauce. One broke in the canner (boo, but it happens) so only 9 are there.
And that was from 3 boxes of the apples!

Oh and here are the ingredients in our applesauce: apples.
That is it.
Applesauce is so darn easy to make and our kids love it!

My parents brought us 4 more boxes of apples today and we have to finish picking our tree, so we intend to do at least 10 more of the big ol' quart jars (though we may do some pints too just for variety, though with our family size the quarts are better for us) and I'd like to do 20 which I think is going to easily happen for us.

Then, for dinner after all this was done we got to have some yummy locally raised steak (I cooked that. I am a master steak cooker and Sam won't even bother because he knows my steaks rawk), fresh green beans and a fantastic salad made from our BB produce (so good the kids asked for seconds of all of it!) and of course, applesauce.

I love how we eat, makes me feel all happy to think of how cheap and yet healthy it is.
Now we are all wiped out from our hard work.

Oh and for those interested, this is a victorio.
It costs close to $80 new but honestly, it is worth it. So versatile!

Yay for canning season! And for me, Yay for a husband who really really really enjoys canning!

Favorite Quotes

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.- Mark Twain

Lose your life in service and you will become great.Do What is right, even when it is difficult, especially when it is difficult. Do not make the mistake of being a social climber. Of course you will want to use your knowledge and skills and talents to do great things. But do them because they are right, because they are good, not because they make you look good.There may also be those who discount or undermine your attempts to improve the world, who laugh at your educational or career choice. Let them. And while you let them, quietly set out to serve them. You are not changing the world to impress them, you are doing it because it is right.-"A Thomas Jefferson Education" Oliver DeMille

I know thou works, that thou are neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spue thee out of my mouth.-New Testament, Revalations 3:15-16

Remember, you are not managing an inconvenience; you are raising a human being.-Kittie Franz

Make careful, slow choices about the people you include in your child's life--- and fast choices about the ones you exclude from your child's life.-Gavin De Becker

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the Strong.-Mahatma Gandhi

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.-Frederick Douglass

In God we trust; all others we run through NCIC.-police quote

The greatest love story never told

Sambodini and Kimberlina (or Sam and Kimber if you want to be boring about it.)

October Newsletter 2013
-
Hi there my favorite piano people!
Everyone is doing pretty darn great so far. I am so excited about it. We
are having a lot of fun!
Just a reminder, paym...

4 years ago

Police Wives Prayer

Dear God, give me COURAGE, for perhaps I lackit more than anything else.I need COURAGE as I witness my husband'sdeparture for duty each day.I need COURAGE as I see him put on his uniformbecause I know the abuse that perhapshe will be subjected to before he returnsfrom his tour of duty.I need COURAGE in dealing with the childrenwhen he is working long hoursduring demonstrations or on aninvestigationI need COURAGE when tensions buildup onthe job and pressures at hometo mount and life becomes almosttoo much to bear.I need COURAGE to stand firm and not tosuccumb to the urge to run awayfrom problems.Help me to have the strength to be aCOURAGEOUS and Valiant Woman,when I learn from the media that a"police officer's been hurt."The next time I waver or grow faint-hearted,Help me, O Divine Master,to be COURAGEOUS.And, having found the source of strength inYou, Help me to reach out toothers, who may be justas scared as I.